In a stunning revelation, the Washington Post is reporting that a secret CIA assessment concluded that Russia interfered in the U.S. election with the goal of helping Donald Trump win the White House. “It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” one senior official told the Post. “Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman,” officials told the Post.

Congressional leaders were briefed in September about evidence of Russian cyber intrusions in at least two states and the DNC hacks. And the White House urged them to release a bipartisan statement pushing for state and local officials to accept federal assistance at protecting voter registration and balloting machines from cyber-intrusions, but several Republican lawmakers balked at the request. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed doubts about the intelligence and “made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics,” reports the Post. Earlier today, it was reported that the Obama administration plans to release intelligence about Russian hacking of the election just before Trump takes the oath of office.